RES Listed as One of the Six Best Energy Storage System Integrators

To mark the launch of the new-look Energy-Storage.News site, our team profiled six of the leading global system integrators working in energy storage today. This is a handful of the names that are designing systems, solving problems, executing projects and shaping the industry around us. Written by: Andy Colthorpe, Tom Kenning, Danielle Ola, John Parnell, David Pratt and Liam Stoker.

Renewable Energy Systems Group (RES)

With a history that stems back more than 25 years, Renewable Energy Systems Group – more commonly known as RES – lays claim to be the world’s largest independent renewables company. With 12GW of renewable generation under its portfolio and offices in 15 countries, its stated aim is to lead the global transition towards clean power generation and has placed an emphasis on wind, solar, storage and transmissions infrastructure. Revenues for the year ended 31 October 2015 amounted to £107.3 million, a staggering 131% year-on-year increase on the £46.4 million it recorded in 2014, however its operating loss also grew throughout the year as the group’s cost of sale proved prohibitive.

RES completed its maiden UK-based utility-scale storage facility last year, deploying a 300kW/640kWh BYD-developed battery on the site of a 1.5MW solar park in Copley Wood, Butleigh, constructed by UK solar stalwarts British Solar Renewables. RES acted as the EPC on behalf of local grid operator Western Power Distribution which used the battery and the solar farm it’s co-located with to deliver various ancillary services. It has been funded through the UK energy regulator Ofgem’s Network Innovation Allowance to test the commercial feasibility of similar co-located projects.

RES also offers its ‘RESolve’ suite of operations and management tools to battery storage projects it develops, offering to optimise asset operation owing to particular performance parameters or revenue streams available. The software communicates with the battery via SCADA systems to optimise for separate load-shifting and frequency services, while also incorporating forecasted generation outputs when co-located with renewables.

To date, RES has developed more than 140MW/92MWh of battery storage projects in three countries including the UK, Germany and the US, which has seen the bulk of its storage deployment so far. The company has a further 200MW of battery storage in its pipeline, including several projects in the UK.